It has long been known that British composer Edward Elgar's 1919 cello concerto reflected the pain and devastation of World War I, as well as the freedom of being back in the English countryside. It was a signature work for the great Jacqueline du Pré, who was married to pianist/conductor Daniel Barenboim at the height of her fame. Now Barenboim has recorded the piece with another female cellist: 2011 MacArthur Grant recipient Alisa Weilerstein. "It's of course very deeply emotional, but it's also very English in that there's a kind of noble resolve," she told NPR's Melissa Block about the piece. "For me, this movement is certainly about nostalgia, but it's also about love," she said of her favorite section, the rapt Adagio. "I don't hear this kind of almost nakedness in much other music."

"Weilerstein imbues every phrase of the Elgar with plush, dark beauty. She takes her lyricism seriously and endows even the jocular bits … with a fierce and even slightly hard edge. Weilerstein's version is full of passion, but hers is of a different, old-soul sort than Du Pré's fresh-faced ardor…. I'll be returning to this album at least as often for Carter's Cello Concerto…. It's a wonderful complement to the Elgar in both its grand, lyrical gestures and its sudden, witty and explosive sparks of dialogue between soloist and orchestra."—"Deceptive Cadence," NPR